With "Black in America 2," CNN deepens its investigation of the most challenging issues facing African-Americans. CNN's Soledad O'Brien journeys to South Africa and criss-crosses the U.S., reporting on groundbreaking solutions that are transforming the black experience in America. O'Brien uncovers pioneers who are making a difference: people inspiring volunteerism, programs that are improving access to quality health care and education, and leaders working to address financial struggles and develop strong families. Before and after viewing these programs, use our free Discussion Questions and Learning Activity to facilitate a conversation with your middle and high school students.
In the words of my mentor and America's foremost child advocate Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of The Children's Defense Fund, it's time to "raise a ruckus people, it is time to raise a ruckus!"
Several hours before President Barack Obama gave his well-received speech at the NAACP centennial convention in New York City, he spoke before another probing audience of African-Americans aboard Air Force One.
President Obama commended the progress of African-Americans in a speech on the 100th anniversary of the NAACP, but said there was still much work to be done.
As the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People prepares to celebrate its Centennial in New York, the city of its birth, I'm confident that we as a nation have turned an important corner on the long road toward racial and economic equality for all Americans.
Thursday the U.S. Senate passed a resolution apologizing for slavery and for legalized segregation.
The California Supreme Court's decision not to retract Proposition 8, the ban on gay marriage, has sent the issue back to the forefront of conversation across the country. Most recently, New Hampshire became the sixth state to legalize gay marriages. While some 18,000 same-sex couples have already tied the knot in California, those who wish to walk down the aisle today will not receive the same privilege.
It seems Tavis Smiley has been irritated with Barack Obama for a long time. Smiley is perhaps the most recognizable African-American journalist in the country. He is a fixture on radio and television, and has authored several books that are best-sellers among black readers.
They're not going to like this.
The NAACP filed lawsuits Friday against two of the nation's largest mortgage lenders -- HSBC and Wells Fargo -- alleging "systematic, institutionalized racism" in their subprime lending.
With "Black in America 2," CNN deepens its investigation of the most challenging issues facing African-Americans. CNN's Soledad O'Brien journeys to South Africa and criss-crosses the U.S., reporting on groundbreaking solutions that are transforming the black experience in America. O'Brien uncovers pioneers who are making a difference: people inspiring volunteerism, programs that are improving access to quality health care and education, and leaders working to address financial struggles and develop strong families. Before and after viewing these programs, use our free Discussion Questions and Learning Activity to facilitate a conversation with your middle and high school students.
In the words of my mentor and America's foremost child advocate Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of The Children's Defense Fund, it's time to "raise a ruckus people, it is time to raise a ruckus!"
Several hours before President Barack Obama gave his well-received speech at the NAACP centennial convention in New York City, he spoke before another probing audience of African-Americans aboard Air Force One.
President Obama commended the progress of African-Americans in a speech on the 100th anniversary of the NAACP, but said there was still much work to be done.
As the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People prepares to celebrate its Centennial in New York, the city of its birth, I'm confident that we as a nation have turned an important corner on the long road toward racial and economic equality for all Americans.
Thursday the U.S. Senate passed a resolution apologizing for slavery and for legalized segregation.
The California Supreme Court's decision not to retract Proposition 8, the ban on gay marriage, has sent the issue back to the forefront of conversation across the country. Most recently, New Hampshire became the sixth state to legalize gay marriages. While some 18,000 same-sex couples have already tied the knot in California, those who wish to walk down the aisle today will not receive the same privilege.
It seems Tavis Smiley has been irritated with Barack Obama for a long time. Smiley is perhaps the most recognizable African-American journalist in the country. He is a fixture on radio and television, and has authored several books that are best-sellers among black readers.
They're not going to like this.
The NAACP filed lawsuits Friday against two of the nation's largest mortgage lenders -- HSBC and Wells Fargo -- alleging "systematic, institutionalized racism" in their subprime lending.
The NAACP filed lawsuits Friday against two of the nation's largest mortgage lenders -- HSBC and Wells Fargo -- alleging "systematic, institutionalized racism" in their sub-prime lending.
Forty years after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., CNN launches a sweeping on-air and digital initiative, CNN Presents: Black in America. These documentaries, "The Black Woman and Family" and "The Black Man," focus on fresh analysis from new voices about the real lives behind the stereotypes, statistics and identity politics that frequently frame the national dialogue about Black America. Before and after viewing these programs, use the overview questions and discussion activity that follow to facilitate a discussion with your pre-teen and teenaged children.
It was the music of rebellion and youth. Artists traded witty improvisations onstage chronicling the pain and the promise of being black in America, inspiring inner-city and rural Southern audiences alike in nightclubs and on street corners.
The world will be watching as Barack Obama is sworn in as president of the United States of America. In anticipation of the inauguration, reporter John Zarrella, photojournalists Dominic Swann and Greg Kilday and I traveled to some of the landmark sites of the civil rights movement to reflect on events that helped shape this historic moment.
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. told followers the night before he was killed that he had been "to the mountaintop" and seen the promised land of racial equality. Last week's election of Barack Obama was the equivalent of taking all African-Americans to that peak, says Dr. Alvin Poussaint.
Spiritual leaders of New York's African-American Muslim communities lashed out Friday at a purported al Qaeda message attacking President-elect Barack Obama and, using racist language, comparing him unfavorably to the late Malcolm X.
If you think African-Americans will come out in greater numbers than ever before to vote for Barack Obama, you're probably right.
Young black gay men, black women and white gay men in their 30s and 40s are much more likely to be newly infected with HIV than other groups in the United States, according to a new analysis from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Armstrong Williams is an African-American conservative commentator who is thinking about making a decision that he says is so agonizing, it gives him heartburn.
Watching delegates file into the Republican National Convention, it's easy to see one big challenge facing their party: Fewer than 2 percent of the delegates are black.
Will Smith has made epic blockbusters a Fourth of July tradition, and Denzel Washington is one of the most recognized faces in show business.
The AIDS epidemic among African-Americans in some parts of the United States is as severe as in parts of Africa, according to a report out Tuesday.
Since she was 12 years old, Suzanne Africa Engo has been working to raise AIDS awareness.
Whenever the segment featuring me and my imprisoned brother, Everett, from Soledad O'Brien's searing CNN special "Black in America" airs nationally, I invariably receive an e-mail, call or comment from a black person saying our story is their story.
Both Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain are treading some unfamiliar campaign-year terrain this summer as key blocs of ethnic voters shift the electoral landscape and put previously uncontested states, big and small, up for grabs.
The following is a list of local and national organizations and programs designed to address many of the issues raised in "CNN Presents: Black in America" and "CNN & Essence: Reclaiming the Dream." Some of the people or guests featured in the programs are involved in some of these organizations.
Republican presidential hopeful John McCain received a polite but tepid welcome Wednesday as he spoke before a hugely pro-Barack Obama and Democratic crowd at the NAACP convention.
Joshua Packwood knows what it's like to be a minority.
Members of the candidate's former spiritual home are confused and saddened by his departure, but are also relieved their congregation can avoid any further controversy
The state's African-American constituency remains strongly in Obama's camp. But is the candidate taking them for granted?
Barack Obama's candidacy has helped make African-American radio personalities sought-after presences
The number of Americans who believe that the country is ready for a black president is rising, a poll released Thursday suggested.
The contest between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama is dividing civil rights movement veterans as well as older and younger African-American voters
Sen. Hillary Clinton, Sen. Barack Obama and former Sen. John Edwards answered questions from CNN's Wolf Blitzer, Joe Johns and Suzanne Malveaux in a debate sponsored by CNN and the Congressional Black Caucus Institute, Monday night.
The top three Democratic presidential candidates face off in a Monday night debate in South Carolina, with the hearts and minds of African-American voters on the line.
In one small town, Barack Obama connects with a segment of the black electorate that he has yet to prove himself with
Democratic rivals Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are locked in an intense battle to win South Carolina voters.
If the advisers around Sen. Barack Obama want to continue to delude themselves into thinking they have lots of time for black voters to get around to figuring out their candidate's record on issues they care about, then the latest CNN poll surely must be the kind of slap in the face to bring them back to reality.
Sen. Hillary Clinton's lead over Sen. Barack Obama, her chief rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, is growing among African-American voters who are registered Democrats, and particularly among black women, a poll said Wednesday.
Like many prominent African-American leaders in South Carolina, state Sen. Robert Ford supported John Edwards in the race for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination.
That's right, I said it. And I mean it.
A trailblazing Chicago school starts economic education early to give inner-city black kids a leg up
In a fast-moving presidential contest with little breathing room, Democratic candidates are courting their base hard.
Imagine a presidential debate where the moderator, as well as the panelists posing the questions, are all journalists of color.
Does it have the right to deny a group of blacks citizenship in the tribe? The question is headed for Congress
The New Orleans mayor could fill a vacuum if the state's most influential African-American politician goes down
Sixty years after Jackie Robinson broke into the major leagues, baseball still has one white blight on its record. Forty percent of major leaguers are minorities, yet there are still only two minority general managers, the same two it's had for the past six years -- Ken Williams of the White Sox and Omar Minaya of the Mets.
Uncle Mordecai was sitting on his front porch where his garden was going to be when I walked up. Do you remember Uncle Mordecai? He was the one who told me the story celebrating his niece, Brenda, in my book "Nappy Hair." All of us in the Kenilworth neighborhood were curious to hear his thoughts on these insults that have been flying around. Before I could get through the gate he had already started complaining.
There's something interesting about watching crowds of African-Americans follow Tiger Woods around Augusta National on Easter weekend. When Woods, the son of a black father and Thai mother, arrived on Tour, many of us in black America believed that he was going to be our golfing messiah. When his father, Earl, told SI in 1996 that his son was "the chosen one," we thought Tiger had come to save us, to show the way toward more opportunities to play the game and succeed in the golf industry.
In recent months, ABC News-Washington Post polls showed Sen. Hillary Clinton running 40 points higher than Sen. Barack Obama among blacks voters asked to name their preference in the Democratic primary.
One of the many joys of the World Cup is engaging in a 30-day frenzy of flag-hugging nationalism. Many Americans root for more than one team: the U.S. and the country of their ancestors. If you're ...
Los Angeles is looking fabulous today. It's a November afternoon - bright, clear skies, sparkling ocean - and from this glass mansion in the Hollywood Hills, a flock of seagulls can be seen taking ...
Later this year, PBS will host two presidential forums, and the moderator might be a new face to many Americans.
In 1982, transplant surgeon Dr. Clive Callender and his colleagues sat down to took a look at African-American organ donation numbers, and they were grim.
Some African Americans have had a profound impact on American society, changing many people's views on race, history and politics. The following is a sampling of African Americans who have shaped society and the world with their spirit and their ideals.
From distinctive sounds to literary eminence, African-American performers, artists and writers have transformed their respective fields. The following is just a sampling of African Americans whose contributions have changed the arts.
Decades after integrated schools, voting legislation and historic civil rights marches, what does it mean today to be black in America?
After ex-"Seinfeld" star Michael Richards' bigoted tirade at a comedy club last month, my staff and I started talking about what could possibly drive a person to say such vile and hateful things.
Is America ready for a female president or an African-American president? We asked, in the latest CNN poll by the Opinion Research Corporation.
How serious a problem is racism in the United States? A new CNN poll finds that black people and white people have dramatically different views on the subject.
Most Americans, white and black, see racism as a lingering problem in the United States, and many say they know people who are racist, according to a new poll.
As a reporter for CNN, I've spent a lot of time travelling around the United States. And along the way, I've developed some impressions of who we are, and where we are, as a society.
Michael Richards says he is "deeply, deeply sorry" for using racial epithets, including the "n word," after being heckled at a comedy club.
President Bush will address the NAACP's annual convention this week, the White House said Tuesday, making an appeal for unity in what will be the president's first appearance before the nation's oldest civil rights group since coming to office.
Members of the black clergy face a challenge in the upcoming political season to refrain from being used by any political party or ideological agenda to further their aims at the expense of the critical issues facing our communities.
During my 2004 presidential campaign, I was fond of saying that it was high time for the Christian right to meet the right Christians. That sentiment is even more appropriate today, more than a year-and-a-half after evangelicals catapulted George W. Bush back to the White House.
With members of the Congressional Black Caucus crying double standard, House Democrats met behind closed doors Thursday and voted to strip Rep. William Jefferson of his seat on the Ways and Means Committee.
African-Americans and Latinos are 30 percent more likely to receive higher rates for home loans than white borrowers despite similar credit scores and risk factors, according to a study published Wednesday by The Center for Responsible Lending.
"My obit's already written," says Bob Johnson. "I can read it to you right now." He puts down his silverware. "Bob Johnson, the founder of BET, died yesterday. He was the first black billionaire, b...
In back-to-back speeches before two friendly audiences this week, former president Bill Clinton alluded to his past affair with an intern and downplayed his involvement in his wife's political career.
Though most New Orleanians approve of their mayor's handling of the Hurricane Katrina aftermath -- and are willing to overlook his "chocolate city" remark -- Ray Nagin is no shoo-in for re-election, a recent poll shows.
Black residents of New Orleans were hit harder than their white counterparts by Hurricane Katrina, but they were also more likely to express optimism about the city's future, according to a poll released Monday.
When Oprah Winfrey has declared you "more than a politician," when you've had dinner with Bill Gates and Steven Spielberg and received 300 speaking invitations a week, things are going well for you as a freshman Senator. So you might forgive Barack Obama for being cautious in his first year on Capitol Hill. Why should he risk blemishing an almost perfect public persona that could help him win the presidency one day? But last month Obama finally found his cause: he wanted to lead Democrats in the push for lobbying and ethics reform. The issue seemed perfect for him. It's high profile because of the Jack Abramoff scandal. And it plays to his cultivated image as a politician above party ideology. Unlike gay marriage or abortion, ethics reform is not polarizing; no one is in favor of corrupt legislators.
The following profiles feature prominent African Americans in the fields of politics, law, sports, civil rights and entertainment.
February marks the beginning of Black History Month, a federally recognized, nation-wide celebration that provides the opportunity for all Americans to reflect on the significant roles that African Americans have played in the shaping of U.S. history. But how did this celebration come to be -- and why does it take place in February?
What do the artists Millais and Rossetti both have in common?
The Icelandic biotech DeCode Genetics said Thursday it has identified a genetic trait that causes heart attacks, particularly in blacks, and is developing a drug to combat it.
As evidenced by President Bush's speech Thursday, Hurricane Katrina already is dramatically changing U.S. politics.
White and black Americans view Hurricane Katrina's aftermath in starkly different ways, with more blacks viewing race as a factor in problems with the federal response, according to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released Monday.
RICHARD SCRUSHY'S $2.7 BILLION accounting-fraud trial looked like a slam-dunk for the prosecution. All five CFOs who had ever reported to the former HealthSouth CEO copped guilty pleas and agreed t...
Mexican President Vicente Fox called two American civil rights leaders late Monday and told them he regretted any offense to African-Americans when he said Mexican immigrants in the United States take jobs "that not even blacks want to do."
The hip-hopping street party was in full swing, college kids talking, laughing and listening to the music.
A forthcoming law review article by UCLA professor Rick Sander is causing a big stir in the legal academic community. Sander's piece in the Stanford Law Review argues that race-based affirmative action as practiced by American law schools during the past 30 years actually ends up hurting the group -- African American law students -- it is most intended to help.
Not long ago, a publishing company put out an enormous, lovingly assembled book dedicated to the career of Muhammad Ali. The book, which weighs 75 pounds and costs $3,000, is titled "GOAT: Greatest of All Time."
Kweisi Mfume, the president and chief executive officer of the NAACP for the past nine years, resigned Tuesday, saying he wants to spend more time with his family.
Decades after the first reported AIDS cases, public awareness, medical progress and hope have by and large replaced fear, reproach and mystery about the disease in the American consciousness.
A pro-Democratic independent group announced plans to launch a hard-hitting ad campaign aimed at keeping African-American voters firmly in the Democratic camp, urging them not to "keep getting played" by President Bush's re-election campaign.
The Democratic Party has long maintained a near monopoly on the African-American vote, a claim Republicans hope to tackle by putting on a new face this week in New York.
In a fiery speech aimed at President Bush's recent appeal to African-American voters, the Rev. Al Sharpton on Wednesday told the president that blacks earned the right to vote under Democrats and it's "not for sale."
Democrats vow to replace bad with better; make the poorer richer and provide medical coverage to help those in sickness move to health.
Searching for a land of freedom and opportunity, thousands of former slaves left the United States in the 19th century and sailed across the Atlantic to a continent their ancestors had unwillingly left.
With three new polls showing the race a dead heat, the Kerry-Edwards campaign launches a pre-convention tour in Colorado today with a new Web site, a new "army of patriots," a new Ohio supporter (Dennis Kucinich) and, most importantly, a new labor deal between Boston's police union and Mayor Tom Menino. (Camp Kerry's code word du jour: "new." More on this below.)
Miss America 2004 Ericka Dunlap went to Capitol Hill Wednesday, but she had more in mind than seeing the sights and posing for pictures.
Sen. John Kerry promised civil rights leaders Thursday he will be a "uniter," bringing opportunities and justice to those he said have been left out in the cold by the Bush administration.
STRONG PITCH: In his strongest pitch yet to a key voting bloc, John Kerry yesterday unveiled a $2 million advertising campaign targeting African-Americans, announced that an up-and-coming black Democrat with a compelling life story will deliver the keynote address at the party's national convention July 27. Kerry also will travel to Philadelphia this morning to address the NAACP's 95th annual convention.
Even more than usual, today's story lines are ruled by rumors and race. And that's before we even get to John Kerry's NAACP speech, or his $2 million TV ad campaign aimed at black voters.
NAACP Chairman Julian Bond called on members of the nation's largest and oldest civil rights organization to boost voter turnout to help oust President Bush.
Leaders of the NAACP say they're furious with President Bush for refusing to address their convention this past weekend.
Because black voters are more opposed to President Bush than is almost any other voting bloc, John Kerry's first move to secure their enthusiastic support might have been simply to follow Hippocrates' instruction: do no harm.
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